“Bu Hua tells compelling stories. In her complex, ambitious paintings, drawings, prints and time-based works, she creates a speculative digital world that blends the uncanny and fantastical with the whimsical.”

Bu Hua tells compelling stories. In her complex, ambitious paintings, drawings, prints and time-based works, she creates a speculative digital world that blends the uncanny and fantastical with the whimsical. Her extraordinarily detailed animations and digital paintings (数字绘画) seem to suggest an idyllic Garden of Eden – yet on closer examination we discover their darker implications. Her works reveal more than meets the eye, suggesting innocence betrayed, a dystopian fairy tale. ‘On the surface it’s very cute and very lovely,’ she told me in our first conversation many years ago, ‘but underneath there is anxiety and pressure.’

In Bu’s imaginary humans (often in the persona of Bu’s nostalgic schoolgirl avatar) cohabit – not always peacefully – with animals and other life forms. Her work has consistently focused on the experiences of women through the character of her alter-ego, a small girl often dressed in the uniform of the Young Pioneers Communist youth organisation.

卜桦擅长讲述引人入胜的故事。在她那些复杂而宏大的绘画和时基作品中，构建了一个融合奇异与幻想、异化与天真、童趣与怪诞的世界。她极为精细的动画和数字绘画似乎在描绘一个田园诗般的伊甸园——但细看之下，我们发现其中潜藏的深邃阴影。她的作品展现的不止于眼前所见，暗示着被背叛的纯真，一个反乌托邦的童话故事。正如她多年前在与我初次交谈时所说：“这些作品表面上看它们很可爱，很美好，但在其下潜藏着焦虑与压力。”

在卜桦的艺术世界中，她始终聚焦于女性的经历与视角。那些想象中的人类形象通常以她怀旧的少女化身——穿着少先队队服的小女孩形象出现。人类与动物及其他生命体共处，但不总是和谐的。